Chapter 2
"Do you think we're going to have to deal with a werewolf in the precinct soon?" Ryan asked Esposito as they walked down the hall together. An easy back and forth conversation flowed between them.
"One percent chance? I don't think Castle is that unlucky. The man has dodged some bullets before." Esposito was leafing through the file in his hands. It contained photos of the crime scene, a couple DMV pics and notes.
"But there is a chance."
"Yo, we don't need to be borrowing trouble. We have enough on our plate to begin with."
Ryan paused near his desk. Esposito could see the wheels turning. "I had a cousin, Seamus, when I was young. He got bitten when he was 10. I saw it happen."
"Did he end up turning?"
"No. Just got attacked. Seamus is now a garbageman. What about you? Know any werewolves?"
"One of my special forces guys got bit. I never saw anyone extracted so fast. Not even one day and he was gone." Esposito paused a moment, thinking. The two of them starting to walk again to interogation.
"I feel like I know something about what he's going through, though. Once when I was in narcotics, I got jabbed by a dirty needle. The next two to three months I was on edge. Every day, I would convince myself that I had AIDS, then hep C, then something even worse. In the end nothing, but man those months were hard. And I don't have half the imagination Castle does."
Arriving at the door to Interrogation 2, Esposito opened it. A small man sat behind the table. His hands chained above it. Underneath his red hair, was a pair of brown eyes, darting around the room, nervously assessing everything. They went from the door to the mirror and back again. He jumped as Esposito slapped the folder of papers down on the table.
"Kenneth Murdo. We need to ask you a few questions. Where were you and what were you doing last night?"
"After I left work, I visited my wife. We watched TV together for a few hours. Then I had to leave for the, uh, the Werewolf Hotel. I got bit about two months ago now. I'm still waiting on my first change. Why? What is this about?"
"We'll get to that. When the officers picked you up, you were two blocks away from your wife's apartment, naked. Any idea as to how you got there?"
Kenneth paused to think. "I remember leaving her apartment. Then... nothing. Please, is my wife OK? Can you tell me that at least?"
"I'm sorry but your wife was found in her apartment dead."
"No."
"It looks like a wolf did it."
Kenneth pulled into himself. "No."
"We want to help you. Right now it's not looking so good. Do you know anyone who would want your wife dead?"
"No one..." he trailed off, lost in thought.
"You need to be truthful with us, Kenneth," Esposito said. "One of our own got bit at your wife's place."
Kenneth's eyes got large. "There may be something. I was running packages for Sharron Moonlight. It was good money, until someone bit me."
"Now, why would Sharron Moonlight want your wife dead?"
"It's part of what she's working on, uh, was working on." Kenneth took a breath. "A cure for lycanthropy."
Castle stood in front of the espresso machine with a cup in his good hand. He set the cup down to pull the handle. But the cup was sitting too far down. The shot wouldn't hit it. He picked it up and put it down a couple more times, just in case it would spontaneously work.
Then he got an idea.
Trying to move his left arm up only made the pain in his shoulder flare up. So he picked up the cup in his good hand again and positioned it carefully under the spout. Then he caught the handle in between his cheek and shoulder.
If he did this slowly and carefully...
"Castle!" Beckett's shout caused him to jerk the cup out of place. Hot coffee splashed on his good hand. The cup clattered to the floor. "What are you doing?"
"Ow. I was making myself a coffee. I nearly had it too." Castle wiped his hand on his shirt.
"Let me." Beckett shook her head as she grabbed a new cup. She took the old puck out of the machine and threw it away. "You shouldn't be doing that with your arm."
"I am not helpless."
"I didn't say you were." She put the new coffee in. "This takes two good hands."
"Show off." He smiled at Beckett. After she pulled the handle, the steam rose and played around her face. Castle took the espresso from Beckett. "Thank you," he said, before they turned and walked out of the break room.
A sharp snap sounded as the magnet hit the whiteboard. Ryan was hanging new photos on the murder board. Three to start with. Faina, Kenneth, and Sharron's pictures topped it, with some notes written in blue underneath each one.
Ryan stepped over by Castle. "How's the shoulder doing?"
"Not bad. I have some pain meds they gave me at the hospital."
"Right now evidence points to her husband being the killer, Kenneth. He was there last night." Esposito tapped a handful of papers on the photo. "And he was bitten two months ago and caught a nasty case of the furries."
"That seems convenient," Beckett said.
"It is. Especially when you take into account she was working on a cure."
"Someone didn't want a cure getting out? Someone banking on people turning into werewolves?" Beckett asked.
"Ooh. I know! The werewolf mafia has plans to release the virus into the water system. No, the Russians. The werewolf mafia working with the Russians have plans to release the virus."
"Why would they want to do that?"
"To destabilize the city of course."
"You're not that far off," Esposito interjected. "Shannon Moonlight is an enforcer for the werewolf mafia. Kenneth was running packages for her two months ago. He never got told and never asked what was in them. One day he was dropping one off and got bit. The wolf took off and no one ever found it."
Beckett's phone vibrated with an incoming text. "Find this Shannon Moonlight. Find out what was inside those packages. Castle and I will see what Lanie has found out about our vic."
Beckett and Castle made their way down the hall towards the morgue. The air temperature dropped significantly the closer they got. Dead bodies and heat don't mix well. Castle started sweating. He couldn't explain it, but something down here was turning his stomach.
Beckett walked through the door ahead of him. The smell was foul. Worse than it had ever been before.
"What have you got for me, Lanie?"
You have done this before, Castle, he thought to himself. You will do it again. The smell can't be that bad. His breathing got heavier as he struggled to keep down his breakfast.
"This wasn't a werewolf attack." Lanie looked up. "Castle are you ok?"
He really wasn't ok. Castle turned and ran out the door. Beckett close behind.
He ran into the men's room. Bile, stomach acid, and half digested food spewed out of his mouth and into the toilet. Shards of pain flared through his shoulder. The second wave brought a warm sensation down his shirt. Blood, he thought vaguely. I must have popped some stitches.
He heard Kate burst through the door. Warm smells of home followed her in. It helped to erase some of the foul morgue scents. "I told you, you shouldn't have eaten that Chinese last night." He felt her warm hand fall on his back.
Castle didn't respond. He just turned and dry heaved into the toilet. His stomach completely empty. Unspoken worries hung in the air between them.
"How are things in there? Do I need to come in?" Lanie's voice called out.
"I'll be right back," she whispered to her husband. She tugged Lanie out of the doorway and down the hall a bit. "He'll be ok. He ate some bad leftovers last night."
"Did he pop those stitches? They need to be looked at."
"And we'll go to the hospital after this. I have a gun. I can make him go. Can you give me a brief overview, and I'll send Ryan and Esposito to follow up with you?"
"She wasn't attacked by a werewolf. The wounds were too clean. Clearly made by a knife. Liver is missing, but that's all that is. A blow to the back of the head is what most likely killed her. Now go get that man back to the ER."